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Hours before Jim Flaherty tabled his stay-the-course budget, 74 worried economists finally found their voices. “We, the undersigned, strongly urge the federal government to stop implementing fiscal austerity measures just to achieve its goal of budgetary balance,” they wrote in a collective statement to the finance minister.

It came too late to affect Tuesday’s budget or influence public expectations.

“As academics we are hardly good at planning marketing strategies,” said Mario Seccareccia of the University of Ottawa, sheepishly admitting that the idea of taking a public stand didn’t even occur to the organizers until two weeks ago. “We know it will not change this year’s budget. But it will raise questions about what they are doing so they — or the opposition parties — will change the course of policy by next year.”

Despite their bad timing, the economists — from 31 universities, three unions, two think-tanks and two professional associations — did zero in on the fundamental question: Can Canada afford a government that disinvests in the public sector at a time when the private sector is not providing the growth or job creation the country needs?

“We believe such a policy is terribly misguided,” the economists wrote. “Economic history teaches us that the current fiscal behaviour, which characterized government policy in the 1930s, merely placed Canada and the world on the path of stagflation.

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“At a time when growth rates remain low and unemployment high, the government should pursue deficit spending at least for a while,” they said. “Cutbacks, by contrast, will create further uncertainty for many Canadian households and businesses and dampen economic activity.”

As expected, neither the lessons of history nor the weakness of the labour market deterred Flaherty from his pursuit of belt-tightening, leavened by a handful of consumer-friendly policy changes. As expected, the opposition parties attacked him vociferously without saying what they would do.

The post-budget cacophony will soon fade. But Canadians will still have to wrestle with overarching issue identified by Seccareccia (who drafted the statement) and his colleagues: How much more austerity can the country afford?

The New Democrats recently suggested they wouldn’t be alarmed if it took an extra year or two to balance the budget. But they stopped short of calling for a course change or a substantial injection of stimulus.

The Liberals have identified income inequality as one of their major priorities. But their prescription — tinkering with tax credits — is a modest deviation from the status quo.

That leaves Canadians with two choices: austerity or austerity-lite.

Until now, few dissenting economists have dared stick their necks out. It was a surprise to learn that so many professors, lecturers and research fellows in French and English Canada, at small and large universities across the country believe Flaherty is on the wrong track. Some of the names on the petition were familiar — Mike McCracken, Jim Stanford, Pierre Fortin, Pierre Fortin, Armine Yalnizyan — but most have never challenged the government before.

It is unclear whether the coalition — Canadian Economists Against Austerity — will stay together in the days ahead and whether it will move from warnings to solutions. The nation could certainly use some fresh thinking and the opposition parties could use some spine-stiffening advice.

The other big unknown, as the country heads toward the 2015 election, is whether Canadians are willing to engage in a genuine economic debate. For 20 years — with a brief let-up during the recession — they’ve been told relentlessly that deficits are dangerous, governments are bloated and tax increases are irresponsible. Even those who once supported and relied on the programs the Tories are chopping have come around to the view that they must be sacrificed to balance the budget.

The good news, the day after Flaherty’s budget, is that credible economic challengers are finally stepping forward. Canadians are no longer content to move in lock-step to an ideological goal they accepted unthinkingly. The opposition leaders are on notice that the nation is tired of hunkering down, waiting for the market to provide deliverance.

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